Hey Everyone!
This week flew by, and transfers are tomorrow! Elder Johnson
will be going to Miri, and I'll be swapping out Elder Loutzenhiser from KK1 to
KK2! So I'll probably be in KK1 for an extra week going on exchanges with Elder
Loutzenhiser so that he knows where everything is, but after that, he'll be
with his companion, and I'll be in KK2 with Elder Mickelson! Reunited! Haha,
Elder Mickelson and I are pumped to be back together to rule KK! It'll be
great. That was the biggest news for sure this week though!
Monday, Elder Mickelson and I flew out to Singapore for MLC,
and we pretty much just walked around Singapore and chilled the whole day.
President Simmons gave us permission to go sight seeing at night time, so we
had tons of fun doing that too.
Tuesday, we literally sat in a room talking about smart
phones from 10 AM to 9 PM. That was pretty killer. Not much to report there.
Wednesday, we flew back to KK. I can't remember what
happened... I think we went and followed up with all of our investigators since
I got back kinda late.
Thursday we tried using this fancy feature on the missionary
app that shows where all the members live on a map. All the members we visited
were gone or had incomplete addresses. Sooooo that was a bummer. But it was
fun. One crazy thing was... There was this road, and it was blocked off because
of construction, but it was the only way to get to this place we needed to go.
We could've back tracked and made a huge loop that would take forever, but that
didn't sound very cool. So we walked right through all the construction. There
was this crane swinging stuff back and forth, and all the construction workers
were pumped to see two white kids walking through all this welding and lifting
and moving and stuff. It was pretty funny.
Friday, we went over to Lodelin and Johnny's house. They're
great. They made some mega good food for us, and then after we finished
teaching them, we went advertising for English Class. We tried meeting with
some PI's, but they all decided KK was too far to travel, so we didn't end up
meeting. But we taught English Class, so that was fun. I'm really having a hard
time remembering everything we did this week. It just flew by. Haha, so much
happened, but so little is coming to mind.
Saturday, Elder Weight and Sister Weight picked us up and
brought us to their apartment to help them set up electronic stuff for the
Christmas party. They couldn't really figure it out, so they had Elder Johnson
and I come over and do it all. It was fun. Their apartment is WAY nice. There
was wood in it. That's how nice it was. And a super cool view too. At night
time, there was a Christmas recital thing. Everyone in the branches played
piano or sung. It was really fun. ALSO. We got a call in the morning from the
AP's telling us about transfers, and figured out Elder Johnson was leaving, and
figured out Elder Loutzenhiser was coming to KK1 with a different elder. So
Elder Mickelson and I were undecided for FOREVER. But finally a couple hours
later the call came and we figured out that we'd be companions. So that was
exciting.
Sunday, Sister Lilian brought her niece to church. Esther
Vivian. Super shy 12 year old girl. But Lilian wanted us to teach her, so we
met with her after church! She's pretty cool! Just mega shy. Anyway, we're excited
to work with her. Sister Lilian is a referral machine, so it's good to finally
have gotten a referral from her. After that, we went over to Rina's and said hi
one last time for Elder Johnson before he leaves KK. We then ran over to
Johnny's, and had him call us a car over to Roslina's. At Roslina's, she gave
us some awesome T Shirts. I'll send some pictures. They were pretty funny.
Shirts were a bit small. But that's ok. It was awesome. We said by to them, and
then ran over to Brother Ian's house for an awesome final dinner with them.
Brother Ian and his family are awesome.
It was an awesome week, and tons more happened, I just can't
remember... Oh, Elder Johnson and Elder Loutzenhiser taught 2 people that we
found last week while I was in Singapore. So that was cool. We also had a guy
tell us that Elder Johnson speaks Malay like a computer. I'm not really sure
what that means, but that was funny. ALSO. Friday night. We get home, I was
checking out my family tree and reading the stories on there, then I said,
"Check out this guy's name! Abel Nephi Casto." to Elder Johnson. Then
he said, "WOAH. I'm related to some Casto's. One sec." He ran and
grabbed his family history tree thing, and we found the Casto's on his, and
GUESS WHAT. My Grandpa's grandma's grandpa is Elder Johnson's grandpa's
grandpa's grandpa! CRAZYYYYY. WE'RE TOTALLY 5TH COUSINS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
So we've been referring to ourselves as cousins. One funny thing is that people
always ask us if we're siblings, because both of our names are Elder. So now we
said, "Not siblings. We're just cousins." Hahaha! It's way funny.
We've been loving it.
I was also informed by the other elders that one night, I
was literally sleep talking in Malay. Awkward. I didn't even realize that I
dreamed in Malay that much. I knew that every now and then, I mixed it into my
dreams a bit, but I didn't realize I had entire dreams in Malay! So that was
funny. I guess I really can speak Malay now! So that was funny!
David Chong made a nice little poem that I'll attach onto
this email too. I don't know if it'll be as funny to everyone that's not in
Malaysia, but I liked it.
Thanks for everything you all do for me! I'll send pictures
later when I have wifi on my phone! Have a great week! You're all awesome!
Love,
Elder Ben Mullins
By David Chong
Twas The Night Before Christmas – Singapore Mission
Twas the night
before Christmas, and all through Singapore Mission
For a good
Christmas Dinner, all were wishing;
It was nearly
January and nothing is free,
So there were no
stockings hung and there was no Christmas tree
My companion was
safely asleep in his bed,
While visions of
investigators danced in his bed.
With the air-con
on full, I had knelt down to pray,
In the hope that
I’d sleep well before the next day,
When out as the
car park there arose such a clatter,
I called from the
bedroom to see what was the matter.
Away to the
window, I crawled like a worm,
I had thought that
the noise may have just been a storm.
The light from the
skyscrapers overpowered the moon,
And made the city
look as if it were noon,
When what to my
wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature
sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old
driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment
he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than
motos his reindeer they came,
And he whistled,
and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! Now,
Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On,
Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the
apartments! To the top of the mosque!
Now dash away,
before the Nepal guards see us, get lost!”
Like baptismal
goals when confidence is high,
When they meet
with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So past the LRT
Station they flew,
With a sleigh full
of gifts, and St. Nicholas too -------
And then, in a
twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and
panning of each little hoof.
As I unlocked the
door, St Nick looked at me dimly,
“My job would be
easier if apartments had chimneys!”
He was dressed all
in fur, so, was sweating like mad,
As my face
cringed, he asked me, “is it really that bad?”
A bundle of gifts
he had flung on his back,
And he looked like
a rice farmer with his big, heavy sack.
His dimples were
merry, there was a twinkle in his eyes,
It was like when I
had first eaten Roti Canai,
His droll little
mouth was drawn up like bow,
And the beard on
his chin was as white as snow;
The stump of a
pipe, he had already lit,
So I had at the
ready, a Word of Wisdom pamphlet.
He had a broad
face and a flatulent belly,
He explained, “on
the way here, I ate food in New Delhi.”
He was chubby and
plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when
I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of an eye
and a raise of his eyebrows –
I hoped this was
him or there’s a strange man in my house.
He spoke not a
word, but went straight to his work,
He put down some
gifts and then turned, with a jerk,
“Where are the
decorations, the tree and the star?”
I said, “like the
wise men, I’ve come very far,
For a short time
I’m here, and for a short time I’ll stay,
In the hope it
affects someone in some good way,
And though I miss
my family – I’ve a gift you can’t buy,
For I know I’ll be
with them, even after I die!
So, when ignored
and rejected I can still bear a smile,
Because I have a
present better than the newest mobile.”
St. Nick looked at
me, in his eye was a tear,
“You and I have a
similar purpose here,
Sometimes I worry
that my gifts can get in the way
Of the very
special reason we have Christmas Day,
To remember the
Savior, His kindness and love,
And when He came
to the stable from way up above.
Dear missionary,
thank you for spreading the word,
For bringing His
lost sheep back into the herd,
And although it’s
not the usual Christmas you envision,
You’ll be blessed
from the Heavens for serving a mission.”
Next thing, he
told me that he was in a hurry,
I looked and
asked, “Hey, where’s my leftover fish-head curry?”
He sprang to his
sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away all they
flew, like the dawn of a thistle,
But I heard him
exclaim ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas
to all, and to all a good night!”
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| Andrew |
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| Talking with kids |
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| Ian's family |
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| Rosalina's shirts she gave us |
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| Sister Rina |
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| Some cute little girls |
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| Lots of kids |
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| Exchanges in Singapore |
